Spore Mini Review

Well, I finally got my copy of Spore yesterday, and I loaded it up on my iMac (which is about a year and a half old) and excitedely waited for things to be ready.

HOLY COW, this installation takes FOREVER. It's the longest installation I've ever done on my Mac, it actually took about 15 minutes to install. Not sure what all it's doing, but it's a 4gb install.

Finally got it done, started it up, beautiful graphics, welcome screen, clicked on my 'Universe' and then picked a planet and was plopped down in the Tidal Pool.

Thank goodness it doesn't take too long, not a terrible amount of variety here, you can 'discover' various extra traits for your little cell, then as he evolves he gets bigger and can get more complex. I like the way this was done, it made a lot of sense and I could always see the larger creatures in the background as I was swimming around.

Finally got to the point where I got to grow legs. Added some legs, and walked up on shore.

Then BAM, everything, and I mean everything slowed to an absolute crawl. I had been running about medium settings which it had suggested, and I had bumped my resolution up to 1680 x 1050 I think it was. So that was the first thing to be bumped down to 1024 x 768. Still absolutely no change, and I don't mean a little bit of lag, it was un-playable. So I went and cranked a few of the details down, very very slight improvement. Ok, turned EVERYTHING down, and now it is running smoothly.

After that frustration with the video lag, the rest of the experience so far has been a HUGE blast. It's a ton of fun, and although you could read the manual, the in game tutorials do a great job of teaching you how to play and evolve.

I'll have to post some videos and pictures of my creature, the wonderful 'Gobstopper' when I play again tonight.

All in all so far the experience has been excellent except for the video requirements. Maybe it'll get addressed in a patch :)

Apple Event Part 2

Well, my hope that the leaked photos and information about the new iPod Nano were false was wrong. I love the new colors, the shape seems kind of wierd to me but I haven't held one yet.

iTunes 8 is awesome, I love the new grid view, and the Genius works quite well for me. I did notice like a few other people have that you need to sometimes let the Genius 'think' about an obscure song or artist before it'll provide suggestions.

The new in-ear headphones from Apple at first got me VERY excited, that is until I looked on the Apple store and found first that they aren't shipping yet, second they ARE NOT COMPATIBLE with the iPhone!!!!

WTF???? It works on the Touch, but not the iPhone, I mean it even has the remote control the iPhone needs. I'm hoping this is just an oversight on Apples part and that they really will work with the iPhone. If not it's a total screw up in my opinion to make them without being compatible with the iPhone.

So when's the next Apple event?..........

Apples Event

After seeing all the photos of the new nano (well, the 2 or 3 photos) and listening to Cali Lewis on Geekbrief.tv this morning, I'm not convinced that it's real. The biggest thing, and what Cali pointed out, how terrible a curved screen would be in terms of reflections when watching videos.

I would LOVE it if this photo was a total red herring that Apple distributed to stop the hounds from hunting for what's coming out. In a way it makes a lot of sense, why keep digging for photos and info on a new device if it's already been dug up? I could be wrong, but I hope not. I remember when an Apple event was a huge surprise, and watching breathelessly as each new item was unveiled, sometimes each new feature.

I can't help but remember what was discussed during the conference call, about something new coming out, and that everyone has been under the umbrella Apple had created and they would have to cut margins.

Well, a few hours and we'll know what's coming. I really hope that they have the 2.1 patch for the 3G iPhone. I'm almost to the point where I am looking at how possible it would be to switch back to my original iPhone till they get more of the bugs worked out. I'm not sure how much of it is the new 3G model, and how much is the new software.

Good article at Menuism

There's a good article describing the different types of Chinese food at Menuism.

Who knew that there were so many types, and the cuisine wasn't just 'Chinese'.

I also recommend Menuism if you like to eat out, and are looking for new places to eat. The more people that sign up, the better it will get :)

Open Source

I just started listening to a new podcast about a month ago called FLOSS weekly. It's one that my brother suggested, and I find that I'm really enjoying it.

I'm actually kind of suprised at first that my brother recommended it, I mean he is into technology and all, but not really into the software development side.

After listening to a couple of episodes I've realized why he likes it. It's not a nuts and bolts development podcast (I'd like to find one, was liking the Macbreak-Developer one, but it seems to be floundering) but instead talks at a higher level about Open Source projects and the community.

It's actually got me looking at the whole Open Source concept a little closer and with a different viewpoint.

PART Express

Well, I finally decided to give the PART express bus a try.

In the past I've not been able to use it, because of the schedules. I was going to have to leave at 6:30 from my house, and I wouldn't get to work until 9. That was just a little too much to be able to do every day. Not to mention how late I would get home.

Now that we've moved to Downtown, leaving at 6:40 from Oak Hollow Mall, I get to Downtown Winston at 7:30. From there it's a short (1/4 mile) walk to work, and I've been getting to my desk at around 7:45.

It's nice to get in a little early in the morning, it gives me time to get settled in. Leaving in the morning forces me to be ready on time, which is another good thing. The ride in is very relaxing, not having to worry about traffic, and even being able to catch a nap if I want to is very nice.

The money I'm saving is pretty good too. I calculated that after I figure up how much gas I won't be spending, and including the cost for a monthly bus pass, I'm saving anywhere from $100-$150 per month.

If you work in the Triad area you can check the schedules at PART's website.

Labor Day

Well, I had a pretty good weekend. Yesterday I went to the Grasshoppers baseball game with a friend, and had an AWESOME time.

Today I went with the family up to Pilot Mountain and we hiked around the knob. It was a lot of fun, and I'm glad we went early because it started to get real busy by the time we left. Now I need to see how much of my errands I can get done around the house :)

What a week

Well, I've had a VERY rough week this week.

First thing on Monday, as I was pulling away from my house my radiator broke. So I've been trying to arrange to either fix it myself, or have a mechanic do it. I decided that a mechanic was the best way to go this time, basically because I didn't want to mess with it.

My new project at work started a new 'sprint' on Monday, and we are trying some new processes. Unfortunately it wasn't as smooth as we would've liked at first, so it put use behind on the project right off the start.

The end of the week has finished up well. I got my car fixed and back (it's amazing how we don't realize how dependant we are on our cars until we don't have one), the project has smoothed out and we're pretty much caught up now, and I went to the last baseball game at Ernie Shore Field last night with my brother. (Pictures are up on flickr).

Now for the weekend.....